Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Dr Deborah Hartman has been an educator/researcher in the field of gender identities, social and educational outcomes and Family Studies, at the Family Action Centre since 1999. She has a husband and two sons, a professional background in primary and Indigenous education, an academic interest in language and sociology and an interest in diverse cultures. She combines her personal, professional and academic interests in trans-disiciplinary research and teaching in boys' education and family studies.

Dr Hartman's work has had a significant impact on the field of educating boys. She has widely published, been an invited keynote speaker at many conferences, developed a Master's level specialisation on educating boys and sat on a government advisory committee on the topic. Her PhD thesis, 'Educating boys; What's your problem?' which is a Bourdieusian field analysis of Australian boys' education from 1996 to 2006, was described as a brave, rigorous and forensic contribution to the field. She currently supervises masters and doctoral students exploring aspects of boys' education.

Deborah's current research and teaching focus is in the discipline of Family Studies. She is the coordinator of the specialisation in International Family Studies in the Master of Family Studies. This innovative program, which commenced in 2013 has several specialisations of wide interest to practitioners and policy makers. Deborah teaches and coordinates courses in Families and Cultural Diversity, Strengths and Challenges of Families around the world, Child-centred practice and Family-centred practice. Her research work in field analysis is contributing to establishing the case for Family Studies as an academic discipline in Australia and towards linking gender and cultural identities, educational outcomes and family and community programs to enhance positive outcomes for all families and family members. She particularly enjoys on-line teaching, using innovative approaches to developing on-line learning communities which enable students and others to connect with each other across gender, cultural, time and technological divides and harnessing their personal, professional and academic experience and strengths to enhance learning.

Research

Research keywords

Families and Cultrual Diversity

Family Studies

educating boys

Research expertise

Dr Deborah Hartman has been a educator/researcher in the field of educating boys since 1999. Dr Hartman's work has had a significant impact on the field of educating boys. She has undertaken numerous practice-based action research projects in collaboration with teachers in the field of boys' education. Her doctoral study on the field of Australian boys' education from 1996 to 2006 entitled 'Educating boys: What's your problem' has been described by leading international academics in the field as 'unflinchingly rigorous' and a 'brave and forensic contribution to the field.' She employed Bourdieusian field analysis methods, combined with Critical Discourse Analysis and Argument Catalogue methods in this thesis.

She has been an invited keynote speaker at many conferences in the field and was invited to sit on a government advisory committee on the topic. She was chief investigator for a federal government funded research project on boys' and families literacy strengths and she has written, edited and published a number of well respected books, book chapters, articles and practitioner journals in the field. Her areas of research in this field include the role of gender in education and male identities; teacher/student relationships; models of good practice and curriculum frameworks for educating boys. She supervises doctoral students interested in exploring aspects of these areas, including the relationship between art pedagogy and identity work for teachers and boys.

Currently, Deborah combines her research interests in gender in education with family studies, through Bourdieusian field analysis and critical discourse analysis as well as practitioner action research in both education and family work. Her current research and teaching focus is Families and Cultural Diversity and Child-centred Practice. She is particularly interested in the effects of migration on family forms, family functioning and relationships within the family.

Invitations

Gender in Education...At the Crossroads? Aug 2002Joint Conference of Australian College of Education (NT), Australian Council of Educational Leaders (NT) and Northern Territory Institute for Educational Research, Australia (Conference Presentation - non published.)

3rd Working with Boys, Building Fine Men ConferenceFamily Action Centre, Australia (Conference convened by FAC)

2005

Inaugural Australian Rock and Water ConferenceFamily Action Centre, Australia (Conference convened by FAC)

2006

Collaboration

Deborah's research collaborations are in field and discourse analysis methods contributing to trans-disciplinary understandings of social fields and evidence and theoretically informed practice, including Gender and Education and International Family Studies. She is a member of the Global Consortium for International Family Studies and is Chair of the Family Relationship Services Australia Research Committee.

She is also involved in International research collaborations around the use of Bourdieusian methods in a range of academic disciplinary contexts.

Administrative

Administrative expertise

Since 2001, Deborah has had a management role in educational and publishing programs about men and boys. In 2006 and 2007, Ms Hartman was Research and Dissemination Manager at the Family Action Centre where she oversaw research grants, government research consultancies, research partnerships with large community organisations and government departments and agencies as well as the publishing arm of the Family Action Centre. She supervised the research functions of three team leaders, four researchers/research assistants, three publication/dissemination officers and eighteen research projects.

For many years, she has been the leader of the Family Action Centre's teaching programs which include Educating Boys, Community Engagement and Volunteering and Family Studies.

She is currently a member of the leadership team of the Family Action Centre which oversees all FAC programs and activities. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Family Action Centre.

She is currently an elected Board member of Family Relationship Services Australia, the peak national body for organisations offering Relationship Services. She is Chair of the Research Committee and a member of the Conference Committee of that Board.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Families and Cultural Diversity

Family Studies

educating boys

Teaching expertise

In 2001 and 2002, Deborah developed a Graduate Certificate and a specialisation within the Master of Educational Studies with a focus on Educating Boys. Expert practitioners in the field outside the university were brought in to consult on the project. From 2001 to 2006 Ms Hartman lectured in several of the courses and was course and specialisation coordinator in the program. She supervises students doing masters by research and advises several others who are enrolled in the masters by coursework and intend to continue with a research higher degree.

In 2013, Deborah took up the role of Program Convenor for the new Master of Family Studies and Graduate Certificate Family Studies. These trans-disciplinary programs are unique to Australia, combining the study of practice models of Family Work with the study of theoretical and policy approaches to families across the life course. The programs were developed by the Family Action Centre and the Global Consortium for International Family Studies.

Deborah is currently coordinator of the specialisation in International Family Studies. She is course coordinator and/or lecturer in courses in Families and Cultural Diversity, Child-centred Practice; Family-centred Practice and Family Strengths and Challenges around the world. She also supervises students in their capstone experience of the program, Special Project in Family Studies.

Deborah has considerable expertise in on-line teaching, using innovative approaches to developing on-line learning communities which enabling students and others to connect with each other across gender, cultural, time and technological divides and harnessing their personal, professional and academic experience and strengths to enhance learning.

Publications

For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.

Click on a category title below to expand the list of citations for that specific category.

Book (3 outputs)

Year

Citation

Altmetrics

Link

2006

Hartman DK, Educating Boys: The Good News: Insights from a Selection of Papers Presented at the 4th Biennial Working With Boys, Building Fine Men Conference, Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 298 (2006) [A3]

1999

Hartman DK, I Can Hardly Wait Till Monday: Women Teachers Talk About What Works for Them and for Boys, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, 125 (1999) [A2]

Chapter (1 outputs)

Year

Citation

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Link

2006

Tracey P, Hartman DK, 'Year 7 boys on the highway to success', Educating Boys: The Good News: Insights from a Selection of Papers Presented at the 4th Biennial Working with Boys, Building Fine Men Conference, Family Action Centre, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW 118-125 (2006) [B2]

Conference (1 outputs)

Year

Citation

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Link

2009

Hartman DK, 'Common, distinct and differing perspectives on the education of boys: An analysis of contributions to the 2000 Federal Government Inquiry into the Education of Boys', AARE 2008 Conference Papers Collection: Proceedings, Brisbane, QLD (2009) [E1]